Hymns and Spiritual Songs (book) - Background

Background

For many years after the Protestant Reformation, John Calvin's claim that non-Biblical music was inappropriate was popularly held. Although Isaac Watts tried to write hymns, those like Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson reversed Calvin's beliefs and claimed that religion and poetry could not mix because the poetry could be damaged: Swift claimed that "the smallest quantity of religion, like a single drop of Malt-Liquor in Claret, will muddy and discompose the brightest Poetical Genius" and Johnson wrote specifically that Watt's "devotional poetry is, like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topicks enforces perpetual repetition, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the ornaments of figurative diction. It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no man has done well." None of this stopped Isaac Watts, and his hymns became popular in public worship; but Christopher Smart's desires were not Watts's, and Christopher wrote as "a private act of worship."

The Hymns were printed in A Translation of the Psalms of David, Attempted in the Spirit of Christianity, and Adapted to the Divine Service, a volume published in 1765 and contained a translation of the Psalms,a new series of Hymns, and a copy of A Song to David. Although the work was not published until 1765, Christopher Smart was already advertising a work containing both Psalms and Hymns in 1763. The Hymns contained thirty-five hymns, and they were not reprinted until Christopher Smart's daughter, Elizabeth LeNoir, published Miscellaneous Poems, which contained changed versions of hymn 3, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 28, and 32. Although there was only one edition of the work, many famous names appeared on the subscription list. The work was published by Dryden Leach, but received little notice in various reviews and no mention of the Hymns.